Obama budget looks to expand tax breaks for poor

posted by Kevin Spak, Newser Staff
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2 years ago

(NEWSER) – President Obama will release his annual budget blueprint today, and it's widely expected to go precisely nowhere in Congress. "It's designed primarily as an appeal to his Democratic base," writes Darren Samuelsohn at Politico. But the New York Times notes that Obama is using the opportunity to address income inequality, which he's staked out as a key issue, using an idea some Republicans have floated in the past: Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for poor workers with children to the childless. To pay for the $60 billion outlay over 10 years, the budget cuts two tax breaks that benefit the wealthy.